ImageCourtesy: TheIndianExpress
In the latest developments in the NIT issue that sprouted since last Thursday over two groups at the campus that debated and consequently clashed over India’s defeat against West Indies in the T20 World Cup (WC), the Centre and the ruling BJP leaned on the newly-elected J&K CM, Mehbooba Mufti to set up an inquiry into reports of excessive use of police force against students, on Wednesday.
Apparently, the Centre seemed to go into an ‘overdrive’ with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and HRD minister Smriti Irani calling up the new CM and urging her to ensure the safety of non-native NIT students.
Non-locals, who constitute a majority that is around 70 per cent of the total student populace, had clashed with their local counterparts after they allegedly ‘celebrated India’s loss’. Although the two sides had been repeatedly convinced to make amends and agree for a truce, tensions escalated when they tried to march outside the campus, displaying their protests when the police used batons and sticks on some of them.
Meanwhile, former J&K CM Omar Abdullah suggested that the State and Central government’s reply and concern hugely ‘smacked of partisanship’. “Would they have shown a similar response if students from J&K studying in other states had been attacked,” he inquired.
Tags: Jammu & Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti NIT Omar Abdullah Rajnath Singh Smriti Irani West Indies
